Notice Board

The Southern Alberta Council on Public Affairs (SACPA) presents a session discussing the provincial government's approach to education in Alberta and whether more charter and private schools will weaken public education.

The Politics of Education in Alberta: Is our Current Government’s Approach to Education Encouraging Privatization of Schools?

Thursday, September 24, 2020 at 10 a.m.

YouTube Live link: https://youtu.be/Ywy8-YRATi0     

Alberta already has the most choice in K-12 education in Canada, with private school pupils being funded to the tune of 70 per cent per pupil compared to public school pupils — more than any other province. Charter schools, started in 1994 by Ralph Klein, receive the same level of per pupil funding as public schools, but are run by private parent or corporate boards. No other province in Canada even has charter schools.

Since gaining power in the spring of 2019, Alberta’s UCP Government has lifted the cap on establishing charter schools and is advocating for a voucher system that would increase the per student public funding to Alberta’s private schools from 70 to 100 per cent. The shift would arguably encourage many more private and religious education schools, more segregation — and more inequality.

To top off the “Politics of Education”, Alberta’s government has paused the previous NDP government’s work on curriculum changes and is employing panels of “experts”, including an all-male group of advisors, to determine an outcome. The speaker will provide more background on these issues and give her opinions on why a strong public school system is important to the well-being of our Alberta communities.

Speaker:                   Bridget Stirling

Bridget Stirling is a PhD student in the University of Alberta’s Department of Educational Policy Studies, where she is interested in children's rights and the politics of childhood. Her doctoral research focuses on education reform movements and education law and policy in Alberta. She serves as a research assistant on Thinking Historically for Canada’s Future, a SSHRC-funded Partnership Grant investigating history education in Canada, where she examines the development and politics of teaching standards in history and social studies education.

Bridget holds an MA in Intercultural and International Communication from Royal Roads University. In addition to her doctoral studies, Bridget serves as an Edmonton Public School Board trustee.

In order to ask questions of our speaker in the chat feature of YouTube, you must have a YouTube account and be signed in. Please do so well ahead of the scheduled start time, so you’ll be ready. Go the YouTube Live link provided in this session flyer and on the top right of your browser click the “sign in” button. If you have Google or Gmail accounts, they can be used to sign in. If you don’t, click “Create Account” and follow along. Once you are signed in, you can return to the live stream and use the chat feature to ask your questions of the speaker. Remember you can only participate in the chat feature while we are livestreaming.

Link to SACPA’s YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFUQ5mUHv1gfmMFVr8d9dNA

For further information on the Southern Alberta Council on Public Affairs, visit the SACPA website.